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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Bite Me!

Bite Me! No...really, it's the name of the app! This is a free app (you can buy more levels) that is great for verbal reasoning, R/L hand coordination, sustained attention, whole body listening, space proximity with others, visual scanning, fine motor, motor planning (would have to consult my OT friends), and best of all, TEAMWORK! Essentially, you need to 'feed' monsters that appear by keeping your finger pressed on them. The monsters appear randomly in groups of 2-4+. If you lift up with your finger, the monster goes hungry and eventually you lose. More monsters appear and you must stay alert! You can select the difficulty level.
How did I use this app?
I had partners work together. They needed to come up with strategies ahead of time and discuss who would press on monsters in each area of the screen. They needed to come up with some "if..then.." situations and tell each other how they could problem solve. The game is a bit like Twister, but is for your fingers. I mentioned this app in another blog note. After each round, the students are asked to review how their turn went, what went wrong, and how they could fix the situation. This app is great for those students who either 'take over' an activity or for those students who 'let someone else do the work'. It's a great opportunity for students to practice advocating for themselves. The pre- and post-discussion portions are the 'verbal reasoning' portion of the app.
For students with social needs, we discuss which Unthinkable characters from the SuperFlex curriculum could try to interfere with our game: Rock Brain, Destroyer of Fun, Space Invader, Body Snatcher, etc. Of course, we also list how we can defeat these Unthinkables so that a fun time is had by all.

Here are some of the questions that are asked:
What were the directions?
What is the main idea or goal of this game?
How will you get the highest score?
What will your job be?
How will you work together?
What skills will you need?
What went wrong?
How can we fix the problem?
What Unthinkables got us?
How can we defeat that Unthinkable?